The West

1
Objectives

• Identify the destinations of settlers heading
  west in the early 1800s.
• Describe the unique culture of the Southwest.
• Explain the meaning of Manifest Destiny.

2
Terms and People

• frontier the land that forms the farthest
  extent of a nations settled regions
• land grant a government gift of land
• ranchero owner of a ranch
• expansion extending the nation beyond its
  existing borders

3
What cultures and ideas influenced the
development of the West?
Since colonial times, settlers had been moving
westward and encountering Native Americans and
Mexicans.
The mixing of these cultures affected the
development of the West and the entire United
States.
4
Early Americans had thought of the area between
the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi
River as the western frontier.
However, by the 1820s, much of that land had been
settled, and Americans began to look beyond the
Mississippi River.
5
Between the Mississippi River and the Rocky
Mountains are the Great Plains.
Settlers in the early 1800s were not attracted to
this region because they did not think it was
good for farming.
6
For many settlers in the early 1800s, the Great
Plains were simply a route to the Far West.

• Some were attracted to the area known as Oregon
  Country in the Northwest.

• Others were interested in the Mexican lands of
  the Southwest.

7
In the Northwest, settlers were attracted to the
fertile land of present-day U.S. states Oregon
and Washington and the Canadian province of
British Columbia.
8
Southwestern Mexican settlements were another
major destination for settlers.
Together with Mexico, the Spanish borderlands had
been claimed for Spain in the 1500s.
9
The Southwest included present-day

• Arizona
• California
• Half of Colorado
• Nevada

• New Mexico
• Utah
• Texas

Ruled first by Spain and then by Mexico, these
lands had a culture and history very different
from that of the eastern United States.
10
Over the years, many peninsulares (Spanish
settlers) had children who were called creoles.
Peninsulares, Native Americans, and Africans also
intermarried and had children called mestizos.
By the 1800s, this combination of ethnic groups
had created a distinct Southwestern culture.
11
Cultural Exchange Cultural Exchange
Spanish to Native Americans The Spanish brought their language, religion, and laws to the Southwest.
Native Americans to Spanish Native Americans introduced the Spanish to foods such as beans and squash. The Spanish adopted Native American clothing, such as ponchos and moccasins.
A Blending of Cultures The general style of Southwestern architecture was European, but the Native Americans who constructed buildings used adobe, a traditional Native American building material.
12
Spanish missionaries wanted to convert Native
Americans to Catholicism.
Many Native Americans in the borderlands were
forced to live and work at missions, where they
learned about the Catholic religion.
At the missions, thousands of Native Americans
died from overwork or disease.
13
When Mexico became independent from Spain in
1821, its land was redistributed.

• Under Spanish rule, land grants had been given to
  only a few peninsulares, but Mexico made many
  grants to individual rancheros.

• Mexico ended church control of missions and gave
  their lands to rancheros and a few American
  settlers.

• Native Americans raided ranches to protest the
  theft of their land, but they were soon crushed.

14
Mexicos independence changed the regions
relationship with the United States.

• Previously, Spain had followed the mercantilist
  system, so New Spain had only been permitted to
  trade with Spain.

• After it won its independence, Mexico allowed its
  people to trade with other countries, including
  the United States.

Spain
New Spain
United States and other countries
Mexico
15
By the 1840s, many people supported Manifest
Destiny, the belief that the United States was
destined to extend from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.
The American drive for westward expansion was
partly responsible for the Native Americans
plight.
By 1850, the Native American population in the
Southwest had dropped drastically.
16
Section Review
Know It, Show It Quiz
QuickTake Quiz
17
Objectives

• Explain how traders and fur trappers helped open
  the West.
• List the reasons pioneers traveled along the
  Oregon Trail and describe the hardships they
  faced.
• Discuss the issues for women, Native Americans,
  and new settlers in the West.

18
Terms and People

• William Becknell an American who forged the
  Santa Fe Trail in 1821
• John Jacob Astor a German immigrant who
  established the American Fur Company in 1808
• mountain man a fur trapper of the Northwest
• rendezvous a meeting where the trappers would
  trade furs for supplies
• Marcus and Narcissa Whitman a couple who set up
  a mission in Oregon and were eventually killed by
  the Cayuse

19
Why did people go west and what challenges did
they face?
Some people went west for the fur trade, others
to become missionaries, and still others for the
free and fertile land.
They all faced dangers including assault,
diseases, accidents, and natural disasters.
20
The first Americans who moved into the Far
Westtraders looking for new marketsblazed
important trails for others.
In 1821, Captain William Becknell led a wagon
train filled with goods over an 800-mile route.
The men who traveled the route, which stretched
from Missouri to New Mexico, faced dangerous
environmental conditions.
21
Becknells group eventually reached New Mexico
with their wagons.
Others followed their route, which became known
as the Santa Fe Trail.
The trail soon became a busy international
trading route.
22

Farther north, fur traders were making huge
fortunes.


John Jacob Astor sent the first American
fur-trading expedition to Oregon.
Astor established the American Fur Company in
1808 at Fort Astor, now Astoria, Oregon.
23
Astors expedition consisted of two groups
The first group sailed around South America and
up the Pacific coast.
The second group traveled across the continent
and found the South Pass through the Rocky
Mountains on the way.
This important route helped to open the Northwest
to the missionaries and settlers who followed.
24
The fur trade made Astor the richest man in the
United States.
Mountain men, who trapped beaver and other
animals, also longed for riches.
25
One mountain man, an African American named James
Beckwourth, discovered a pass through the Sierras
that later became a major route to California.
26
For most of the year, mountain men led isolated
lives facing danger from animals and the
environment.
Once a year, trappers would attend a rendezvous
where they celebrated and sold their furs.
27
By the 1830s, the beaver population was nearly
exhausted.
Others became guides for wagon trains.
Many trappers moved back east to take other jobs.
28
In the 1830s, the first white easterners to live
permanently in Oregon were missionaries.
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman set up a mission in
Oregon to convert a Native American group, the
Cayuse, to Christianity.
When the Cayuse lost land to whites and many of
their people to a measles epidemic, they killed
the Whitmans and other settlers.
29
Still, missionaries like the Whitmans helped spur
settlement of the West.
Their glowing descriptions of the free and
fertile land in Oregon led many easterners in the
grip of Oregon Fever to make the journey west.
30
Many settlers followed the Oregon Trail, a route
that stretched more than 2,000 miles from
Missouri to Oregon.
31
One out of every ten travelers on the Oregon
Trail was killed along the way by disease or
accidents.
v
For protection, most pioneers on the trail
traveled in long trains of covered wagons.
More than 50,000 people reached Oregon between
1840 and 1860.
32
When gold was discovered in northern Oregon in
the 1850s, large numbers of white and Chinese
miners moved to the area.
In 1855, the miners killed many Native Americans,
and the Native Americans fought back.
The U.S. government intervened and forced the
Native Americans to accept peace treaties.
33
Pioneer life was filled with hardships, and some
settlers gave up and went back East.
Those who stayed had to clear the land, plant
crops, and build shelters with only a few hand
tools.
Disease, accidents, and natural disasters were
ever-present threats.
34
On western farms, womens labor was necessary to
their families survival, and this raised their
status.
The West was more liberal than the United States,
which did not pass a constitutional amendment
giving women the right to vote until 1920.
In 1869, the Wyoming Territory became the first
area of the United States to grant women the
right to vote.